Famitsu asked, "What kind of game did you have in mind for the finished product?"

Kazuyuki Yamai (Shin Megami Tensei IV Director) replied: "Definitely something simple, yet distinct. I wanted to make something with a 'punk production'. 20 years ago, fantasy-style RPGs were the standard of the genre. Shin Megami Tensei on the Super Famicom was something like an antithesis when you compared it. That's what I call 'punk-minded'. There are many games these days that focus on being enjoyable while relaxing. We'd like to have people enjoy the game and maybe even a shocking feeling towards their views on life and values."

I think that's a disingenuous comparison-- I'm not familiar with Doi's other works, but assuming that he can't create something unique just because of what he's done in the past (which I know nothing about) seems unfair. Appealing to a wider audience is still possible while maintaining a connection to what has come before. I definitely think the game still looks like SMT, but iwth it's own flavor.

Logged

Friends, waffles, work. Or waffles, friends, work. Doesn't matter, but work is third.

And to be honest it's ANIME but not a sort of pandering or overly pop style of it. The characters don't look like rejects from a kid's anime (closest is that the lead looked like Korra from behind... a character from an American cartoon that's just anime styled and mainly came from the hair style), or fashion rejects of Nomura, or the moe crap of the likes of Idea Factory or Compile Heart. Really, his style looks a lot like Kaneko's 32-bit onwards style with the Goth scrubbed out, if they really wanted to go ANIME they'd have just gotten Soejima to do the artwork, and that probably would be the better bet to get the staunchly Persona fanbase in.

The characters don't look like rejects from a kid's anime (closest is that the lead looked like Korra from behind... a character from an American cartoon that's just anime styled and mainly came from the hair style), or fashion rejects of Nomura, or the moe crap of the likes of Idea Factory or Compile Heart.

Geez man...

Is not like didn't know they could have gotten away with a drastic change in the art direction, stuff like can really alineate an entire fanbase.

And to be honest it's ANIME but not a sort of pandering or overly pop style of it. The characters don't look like rejects from a kid's anime (closest is that the lead looked like Korra from behind... a character from an American cartoon that's just anime styled and mainly came from the hair style), or fashion rejects of Nomura, or the moe crap of the likes of Idea Factory or Compile Heart. Really, his style looks a lot like Kaneko's 32-bit onwards style with the Goth scrubbed out, if they really wanted to go ANIME they'd have just gotten Soejima to do the artwork, and that probably would be the better bet to get the staunchly Persona fanbase in.

I agree, and I still like the artwork, but we definitely lost something without Kaneko's input.

Though the designs Doi did for the modern humans(namely the Gaian cultist and the Hikawa look alike with the shades) gave me huge Kaneko vibes.

I may be of the unpopular opinion here, but while like Kaneko's artwork, I'm of mind that it needs to stay exactly that: artwork. Even in PS2 titles characters some of the characters' face models were starting to look creepy/strange (and not in a good way to fit the games and their themes, especially in the Raidou games). I imagine a more detailed character model for current-gen or next-gen would be even worse. I think the new artwork strikes a good balance.

That said. . .I can't see Devil Survivor's character designs working particularly well in 3D, either.

That's what I meant, apologies for the lack of clarity. The SMTIV designs look nice, as did the Catherine designs. I just don't think pure non-monster Kaneko designs would look very good outside of a few specific settings. I'll never get tired of his monsters.

I may be of the unpopular opinion here, but while like Kaneko's artwork, I'm of mind that it needs to stay exactly that: artwork. Even in PS2 titles characters some of the characters' face models were starting to look creepy/strange (and not in a good way to fit the games and their themes, especially in the Raidou games). I imagine a more detailed character model for current-gen or next-gen would be even worse. I think the new artwork strikes a good balance.

That said. . .I can't see Devil Survivor's character designs working particularly well in 3D, either.

I may be of the unpopular opinion here, but while like Kaneko's artwork, I'm of mind that it needs to stay exactly that: artwork. Even in PS2 titles characters some of the characters' face models were starting to look creepy/strange (and not in a good way to fit the games and their themes, especially in the Raidou games). I imagine a more detailed character model for current-gen or next-gen would be even worse. I think the new artwork strikes a good balance.

That said. . .I can't see Devil Survivor's character designs working particularly well in 3D, either.